Distilled Mug Art

Lyrics

(1)

02.30
The god is going down now
Red cup growing on desk
Burnt on digital
Slow
More widening
02.19
Whilst the engineers
Trying to pick up bits left and top of screen
2.11
Whilst they are amusing themselves
Trying to make politicians or actors look funny or better
According to their present or ingrained past beliefs  (2)
2.06
Good idea for war history programme
Torn off bits of pictures of barbed wire
1.49
1.498
Distilled mug art
Digital distilled altered art
Distilled cut off screen
Digital'd by mugs
1.073
Distilling mugs
Alter top of heads and make them nasty-like
1.05
Put in a paper or CD cover
00.058
And give the folks mumps to order with their apple shape
0068
Distilled to order
Faces distilled to order
Digital mug art

Notes

1. This is a song about the digital manipulation of images. The Story of the Fall calls it a "tirade against computer manipulation of faces," and there seems to be some truth to this, but I am hesitant to swallow this interpretation whole. For one thing, on close inspection, MES rarely does tirades; there is usually far too much ambiguity in a Fall lyric to qualify as a tirade. Of course, "Trying to make politicians or actors look funny or better/ According to their present or ingrained past beliefs" does not come within miles of anything one can imagine MES getting behind. But aside from this line, there isn't much to go on in the lyrics that would give us a sense of a normative stance. The opening line, "The god is going down now," is reminiscent of Walter Benjamin's "The Work of Art in the Age of its Technological Reproducibility," an essay in which the author is concerned with the dissipation of an artwork's "aura" or charismatic presence as a result of the mass reproduction of art. For Benjamin, this enables a critical distance from the artwork that he sees as having liberatory potential. I don't know if MES had this essay in mind when he wrote this song--as far as he know, he has never mentioned Benjamin, so there's no particular reason to think he did, and the line also smacks of Nietzsche, who MES is known to have read--but I think it's more fruitful to take this song in a descriptive sense as occasioning a meditation on the effect of digital technology on art and representation rather than assuming it straightforwardly valorizes the sanctity of the image or anything of that sort.

The word "mug" suggests the coffee cups sold at art museums adorned with images like the Mona Lisa and "The Starry Night," an obvious example of the mass reproduction of artworks. At the same time, MES seems to be using it in the sense of a roguish or unsavory character, as well as the vernacular usage that means "face." He undoubtedly seems concerned at the feedback loop that results when representations of reality are instantly manipulable, mugs being manipulated by mugs who plaster them on mugs. At the same time, it seems like the main idea is to point to this phenomenon rather than to protest against it; the song brings something important to light, and rather than exhorting us to feel a certain way about it, MES chooses to work in a descriptive register.

A second vocal line shadows the lyrics printed above, but I can salvage nothing comprehensible from it.

^

2. Hexen Blumenthal is reminded of Captain Beefheart's "Bill's Corpse":

Various species grouped together according
To their past beliefs
The only way they ever all got together was
Not in love but shameful grief

See also "Bill is Dead," the title of which may have been inspired by the aforementioned song.

^

Comments (7)

dannyno
  • 1. dannyno | 28/08/2014
It's "Torn off bits of pictures of barbed wire", not "torn up".
Robert Brokenmouth
  • 2. Robert Brokenmouth | 07/02/2018
'Mug' is being used in several senses - and it's a joke. I'd say Mark intended people to get the pun straight-away. The topic seems to be the destruction of human reality and individuality.
bzfgt
  • 3. bzfgt (link) | 17/02/2018
Yes, Robert, I think I captured all that in the following unless you think there's another meaning I'm missing:

"The word 'mug' suggests the coffee cups sold at art museums adorned with images like the Mona Lisa and 'The Starry Night,' an obvious example of the mass reproduction of artworks. At the same time, MES seems to be using it in the sense of a roguish or unsavory character, as well as the vernacular usage that means "'face.' He undoubtedly seems concerned at the feedback loop that results when representations of reality are instantly manipulable, mugs being manipulated by mugs who plaster them on mugs."

I take his perspective to be more ambiguous than you have it, but I admit that this may be a projection as the lyrics don't necessarily indicate ambivalence, I suppose. To be honest I don't remember exactly what I was thinking when I wrote this.
Hexan Blumenthal
  • 4. Hexan Blumenthal | 04/01/2019
"According to their present or ingrained past beliefs" compare to Trout Mask Replica "Bill's Corpse" "various species grouped together according to their past beliefs" could it be yet another Beefy allusion? (How many is that now?)
bzfgt
  • 5. bzfgt (link) | 26/01/2019
Oo great connection! I don't know how many, there are a bunch...Totally Wired and Scenario come to mind right away
bzfgt
  • 6. bzfgt (link) | 26/01/2019
And of course "Bill is Dead"...
NewFallFan
  • 7. NewFallFan | 19/10/2021
I'm sorry but the Walter Benjamin connection/influence seems a bit grandiose and reaching a few rungs too far. Also the overall analysis explicated above is taking everything much too seriously. MES was keen on having a laugh. And I think this song is one of his most brazen Cosmic Jokes, truly a favorite of mine and definitely in the Top 5 of MES's most bizarre, f-ed up yet hilarious bouts of genius.

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